Mohammad Rizwan — Pakistan's wicketkeeping captain and T20I lynchpin

Mohammad Rizwan is the player Pakistan cricket leans on when it cannot afford to lose. As Pakistan’s T20I captain, as Multan Sultans’ captain across multiple PSL seasons, and as the team’s first-choice wicketkeeper-batter, he is the central figure in two of the country’s three white-ball units.

At a glance

What he is best known for

The defining Rizwan run was IPL-blocking. Through 2021 and 2022 he and Babar Azam built a Pakistan T20I opening partnership that did one thing extraordinarily well: not getting out. They posted partnerships of 100-plus more frequently than any other opening pair in T20I history through that 18-month window. The model required Rizwan to play percentage cricket, run hard between the wickets, and absorb pressure that other openers handled by hitting their way out of it.

The critique of that style was that it left too much for the middle order in the final 8 overs. The 2022 T20 World Cup final, where Pakistan made 137 against England and lost, was the version of that critique landing.

Since then, Rizwan’s batting has evolved. The 2023-24 was his year of conscious adaptation. He took on power-hitting coaches, changed his stance against the new ball, and added 10-12 strike-rate points to his standard T20I innings. The result by 2025 was a batter who could still anchor when needed but no longer felt like he had to.

The captaincy

Rizwan took over Pakistan T20I captaincy from Babar Azam in 2024, briefly handed it back to Shaheen Afridi, then reclaimed it later that year. He has held the role since. His captaincy style is hands-on. He sets his own fields, talks to bowlers between every over, and treats the team’s analysts as core decision-makers rather than support staff.

The criticism of him as captain is that the team plays a slightly defensive brand of cricket in the final stages of T20Is and ODIs. The defence is that Pakistan’s bowling unit is set up to defend modest totals and the captaincy reflects that. The 2025 T20I numbers under Rizwan support the defence: 16 wins from 22 games, the country’s best calendar-year T20I record since 2018.

PSL with Multan Sultans

Rizwan captains Multan Sultans and has done so for four consecutive PSL seasons. The franchise is consistently in the top three of every season’s table. They won the title in 2021 and have been finalists or qualifiers in three of the next four seasons.

His batting in the PSL is closer to his old anchor style than his updated international approach. The Multan top order leans on him to bat through the innings while the overseas players take more risk around him. The model has produced match-winning hundreds in big games (PSL 2024 final, PSL 2025 Qualifier 1) and has also led to slow chases that fell short (PSL 2026 Eliminator 1 against Hyderabad Kingsmen).

Recent form

Rizwan’s 2026 has been his best calendar year as a batter so far in white-ball cricket. He has 487 ODI runs at an average of 54 and 612 T20I runs at a strike rate of 138. The combination of those numbers from a wicketkeeper-batter who is also captaining the side is exceptional by any metric.

Test form has been quieter. He plays Tests when fit and Pakistan need him, but he is no longer a first-choice red-ball pick. The PCB’s stated policy is to manage his workload by limiting him to white-ball cricket where his impact is highest.

What to watch

Two questions define the next 18 months.

The successor. Rizwan turns 35 in 2027. PCB has not publicly named a T20I captaincy successor. The candidates are Saim Ayub (young, batting captain in the making), Shadab Khan (vice-captain, an all-rounder but not a wicketkeeper), or Mohammad Haris (the next-generation wicketkeeper). Whoever Rizwan grooms as deputy in 2026 is the likely answer.

The Champions Trophy chase. Pakistan are reportedly building the 2027 ICC Champions Trophy squad around Rizwan as captain and Babar Azam as the senior batter. If the partnership at the top of that side works, Pakistan are a real semi-final contender. If it doesn’t, the next selection cycle starts immediately.

Rizwan’s career has been the story of a player whose value gets undervalued because his runs don’t come with the highlight-reel sixes. The honest sentence is that he has been the central figure in Pakistan’s most successful T20I era and a steady, high-average captain through a turbulent PCB period. Both are rare.

Source: Mohammad Rizwan – ESPNcricinfo

Related: Babar Azam profile · Shaheen Afridi profile